Eradication of Diseases

NYC Issues Warning Of Infectious Disease Spread By Rat Urine After Record Year Of Reported Cases

New York City health officials issued a warning about the increase in transmitted bacterial illness spread by rat urine after 24 cases were reported in 2023, the most for any year. 

Only six cases of leptospirosis have been reported in the city so far this year, but numbers were trending upward, the New York City Department of Health said. 

Cases in New York are largely associated with exposure to materials contaminated with rat urine from the Norway rat. 

The disease can cause fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, conjunctival suffusion, jaundice, and rash, Celia Quinn, the deputy commissioner for the Division of Disease Control, who issued an April 12 memo warning of the disease.  

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A rat crosses a Times Square subway platform. New York City health officials have issued a warning about the increase in transmitted bacterial illness spread by rat urine. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

If not treated, kidney failure, meningitis, liver damage, and respiratory distress can occur, she said. 

"Transmission occurs through direct contact with infectious urine or urine contaminated water, soil, or food, entering the body through open wounds or mucous membranes," the memo states. 

From 2001 to 2023, the Bronx had the most cases with 37, while Manhattan had 28, the memo said. Six deaths were reported in the same time period.

Person-to-person transmission is rare, officials said.

The Leptospira bacteria can die within minutes in the dry heat and freezing cold, Quinn said. 

"The cold winters of NYC likely limit the extent to which leptospires can survive in the environment," she said. "However, excessive rain and unseasonably warm temperatures, factors associated with climate change, may support the persistence of leptospires in more temperate areas like NYC."

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Rats swarm around a bag of garbage near a dumpster in New York. (AP)

More than half of the 24 cases reported last year were reported between June and October, a period when there was a warmer and wetter climate with excessive rain and "unseasonably" warm days.

The number of cases raised alarms because only three per year were reported from 2001 to 2020. From 2021 to 2023, the city received 15 reports of leptospirosis.

Some 3 million rats call New York City home, according to a study by a pest company. 

In December, Mayor Eric Adams said rat infestation was partly responsible for many New Yorkers leaving the city. 

"Some people who have children and families decide they want to go to a place where their children can play outdoors, larger green spaces, you want to see animals — you don't see animals except for rats in New York," Adams said when asked about the plunging population data.

A rat scavenges for food on the subway platform at Herald Square September 3, 2017, in New York City. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

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"So there's a combination of things," he added. "And we are getting rid of those rats, by the way."

New York City Seeing Uptick In Rat Urine Illness

Rat urine is to blame for an uptick in flu-like illnesses across New York City, according to mayor Eric Adams.

Leptospirosis is a potentially deadly bacterial infection that can be contracted through urine from infected animals or contact with water, soil or food contaminated with the urine of infected animals.

Animals capable of getting the disease include dogs, cattle, pigs and horses. If infected, humans may experience symptoms such as fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhoea, cough, conjunctival suffusion, jaundice and rash.

New York Rat Czar (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Without treatment, the disease can cause kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress and even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For years, New York City saw a steady number of cases of the disease due to its ever-constant rat population.

But the number of diagnoses has recently gone up, with 24 reported cases in 2023 alone, the highest number in a single year, according to the city's Department of Health. So far, six cases of the disease have been reported in 2024.

For comparison, the city saw three cases per year from 2001 to 2020. Officials say one of the causes for the increase is residents leaving plastic trash bags out on the street.

"It's a real problem", Mr Adams said when asked about the topic during a Thursday news conference in Albany. "We have too many plastic bags on our streets".

Mr Adams appointed Kathleen Corradi to be the city's first-ever "Rat Czar", a decision he said put his team ahead of the curve in the fight against rodents. He said that ongoing efforts, like the use of trash containers instead of bags, are "running rats out of our town".

He added, "People need to connect the dots. Plastic bags mean rodents. Get the plastic bags off our streets, you will have a major dent in the rat mitigation problem".

Speaking at the same news conference, Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi said that New Yorkers leave out 44 million pounds of trash every day. Anyone working in garbage disposal, such as supers, should wear gloves to protect themselves from contracting the disease, she said.

Mr Adams's office has also invested $3.5m to launch the Harlem Rat Mitigation Zone, an initiative to lower the number of rat sightings in the borough. Officials have noted that there's been a 20 per cent decrease in non-emergency rat calls since the launch of the efforts.

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Life-threatening Rat Pee Infections Reach Record Levels In NYC

Enlarge / A rat looks for food while on a subway platform at the Columbus Circle - 59th Street station on May 8, 2023, in New York City. GettyGary Hershorn reader comments 136

A life-threatening bacterial infection typically spread through rat urine sickened a record number of people in New York City last year—and this year looks on track for another all-time high, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports.

Further Reading Man's eyes turn bloody, yellow after plunge into pee-filled canal The infection is leptospirosis, which can cause a range of symptoms, including non-specific ones like fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and cough. But, if left untreated, can become severe, causing kidney failure, liver damage, jaundice, hemorrhage, bloody eyes (conjunctival suffusion), respiratory distress, and potentially death.

The bacteria that causes it—spirochete bacteria of the genus Leptospira—infect rats, which shed the bacteria in their urine. The germs jump to people through direct contact with open wounds or mucous membranes.

New York City has long been in a (mostly losing) war with its rat population, which last year was estimated to be as many as 3 million. Mayor Eric Adams has made fighting the rat population a key initiative, and just last week, the city council proposed the latest strategy to curtail the furry brown rodent's colony: birth control in the form of salty pellets.

Still, leptospirosis has not been a prime concern from the rats' mischief until recently. Between 2001 and 2020, the city logged an average of just three leptospirosis cases a year—and some of those were travel related. But, things took a turn during the pandemic when the rat population seemed to boom. From 2021 and 2022, the average shot up to 15. In 2023, there were 24 cases, the highest number of cases ever recorded for a single year. And as of April 10, there have been six cases so far.

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That number of cases so far this year is concerning given that Leptospira bacteria are "fragile," as the NYC health department puts it. They die quickly in the freezing temperatures of winter and the dry heat of summer. Their main time to thrive is in warm, moist conditions. Last year, the months with the most cases were June and October. The health department noted that climate change, which is causing excessive rain and unseasonably warm temperatures, may be partly driving the uptick in cases.

In a health advisory released last week, the city's health department advised clinicians to be on the lookout for cases, which are treated with common oral antibiotics when mild or intravenous doses when severe. Symptoms typically develop in 5 to 14 days after an exposure, but can show up after anywhere from 2 to 30 days.

Of the 98 locally acquired cases that the city has recorded between 2001 and 2023, nearly all were in men (94 percent), and the median age was 50, with an age range of 20 to 80 years. Most often, the cases occurred in the Bronx (37), followed by Manhattan (28), Brooklyn (19), Queens (10), and Staten Island (4). Cases presented to clinicians with acute kidney and liver failure and occasionally severe respiratory involvement. Of the 98 cases, six died.

The cases are typically related to living or working in environments with rat urine, contaminated soil and water, or materials frequently contaminated with rat urine, such as trash bags or food waste bins. The health department noted that human-to-human transmission is rare.

New York isn't the only city plagued by leptospirosis cases. Last year, doctors in the Netherlands reported the case of an 18-year-old with jaundiced, bloody eyes, who had developed leptospirosis after falling into a canal that was likely contaminated with rodent urine.

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